PSYCHOTIC STALKER

AURORA BRADLEY'S POV

It has been one week since the psycho visited our house and made a scene. It seems like he had given up. I should feel relieved, but I keep having this nagging feeling of foreboding. As if something is about to go wrong. 

“I wonder what William is doing?” I mutter and fish out my phone to call my boyfriend, William. I called him ten times, but it just won't connect.

If I don't know better I would have thought that he blocked me, which is ridiculous. William loves me a lot. He's very devoted and caring. Once I graduate next year, we will get married, and I can put all these drama behind me. 

I feel someone appear behind me. The hairs on my body stand on edge, and goosebumps cover every inch of my skin. I have never felt so afraid, not even when facing Leonardo, the demon that rules Northern America's underground. I quickly turn around and swing a punch. However, before it can connect with the target, I feel something hard hit my neck and I immediately black out.

******

The next time I open my eyes, I'm in a car. My hands are tied behind my back and I’m lying on the backseat with my legs placed on a man's thigh. 

I have been kidnapped! 

“Leonardo, you bastard!” I shout before I can think better of it.

The men all turn to me, including the driver. Surprisingly, they didn't cover their faces. As if they are not afraid of being seen. What bold kidnappers! As expected of people under the Cassanos. 

“Young miss, I see you're awake. We're two minutes away.” The one beside me says, helping me to sit up with a gentleness that surprises me. 

“Release me now! I'm telling you, I'm not an easy target, I'm not someone you can afford to mess with. Let me go now, and I might still forgive you.” I say with a scowl hoping my voice is threatening enough. 

However, the smirks on their faces make me feel like a clown. They don't seem to take me seriously at all, talk more of being intimidated. 

“Of course, you're not an easy target. How can the boss’s woman be an ordinary person? Lady Aurora, don't give your subordinates a hard time. Just follow us. If we end up dead because of you, that would be an injustice to us.” The one beside me says and winks at me. 

Just then, the car stops before mighty silver gates. The stone walls seem to reach up to heaven. Could this be a prison or a fortress?

The gates open on their own after the driver lowered the glass, probably to enable some kind of facial recognition. 

I quickly look out the window and nearly collapse. Men in black holding guns are patrolling around the gates, and a watch tower was also attached to the gates. There are two buildings on either side of the gates, then a garden and fountains. 

We pass a second gate. This time, the road seems to branch out to other places with more gardens, fountains, and tracks, creating a fork. And then the third gate. The car stops before a building and someone carries me out. I'm stunned by the things around me, making me absent minded till my feet touch the ground. 

I look up at the castle before me, several stories tall. It was all steel and stones, the kind you will only see in movies. At the right wing of the house, there is a helipad extending from the second floor, and I count three helicopters. Worse, men with guns are patrolling around the building with unsmiling faces. At this moment, I realize that I just walked into hell, the den of one of the biggest and deadliest mafia Lords in the world. 

And not even the heavenly scenery, gardens and fountains can cheer me up. Tears rush to my eyes, but I bravely blink them back. Showing weakness at this point won't benefit me. 

I keep my head down, refusing to see anything. In this case, seeing too much will put me in trouble or get me killed. The first rule of surviving in a mafia den is ‘see nothing, hear nothing’. And I'm very determined to keep the rules. 

I vaguely realize when we enter an elevator, when the elevator stops, and when we walk into the room where they finally drop me off. I look up and see Leonardo facing the window with a glass of red wine. I can't help but wonder if that was human blood. 

“You Psycho! Why did you kidnap me?” I roar in anger. I don't know what it was about Leonardo that always combusts my emotions whenever I set eyes on him. I kept calm with his men. But the moment I see him, my rationality flies out the window. And all I can think about is beating him mercilessly. Even though he's definitely stronger than I am. 

“Hello to you too, sunshine. Did you miss me?” He asks the same time his men untie my hands. 

“Miss you? Miss you my ass! Why don't you just die already and stop bothering me?” I shout, losing my rationality again. 

He looks at me with a frown as if he's contemplating something. After a while, he points to the table.

“There's a gun on the table. You can shoot me dead with it.” He says nonchalantly, as if he is not talking about his own life. 

He stands up and walks to me, making me take a step back in dread. 

“If you want me dead so much, sunshine, you can do it.” He repeats, and encircles his arms around my waist. 

“You mad man.” I whisper, gasping in disbelief. Is this what it feels like to be around twisted people? 

“Sweetheart, I missed you. How about you? Did you think about me?” He whispers, caressing my face. 

I spit at him. But to my greatest surprise, he licks the saliva that trickled down to his lips, not offended at all. What's wrong with him? Why doesn't he get angry no matter what I do to him?

“I guess I know the answer. You thought about me, but not quite the way I hoped for.” He whispers and carries me up. 

I scream in horror, but he ignores me and walks into a room. The mad man dumps me on the table, and reaches for a remote control. 

But that’s not what caught my attention. It’s the white board near the window. Uncountable pictures of me from when I was a child, even up to an hour ago, are gummed to the board. There are also a few pictures of my parents at a corner of the board. I gasp, and before I can stop myself, I walk towards it. 

Cold sweat covers my skin and I can't help but feel terrified. He has pictures of me all through the week, including the three times I went out with William. But he slashed off William's head in all the pictures. However, it didn't stop me from knowing whose pictures he mutilated. 

I feel his warm breath fan my neck, and he kisses my ear. 

“Do you like it?” He whispers, holding my waist. 

I gasp in anger and turn to him. Does he actually expect me to like this? 

“You have been stalking me? You're mad!”

“My sweet baby, I can't help myself, I love you too much. I will go crazy if I can't see you. But I made sure not to make you uncomfortable, I gave you space for a week, I can't do it anymore.” He whispers, hugging me. 

I push him away and slap him, my eyes blazing with the fires of fury. 

“You! Is this what you call giving me space? You stalked me all week. Look here, William is the one I love, the only one I would ever love in this life. You're dreaming if you think I would give into your demented desires. All I dream of is killing you. You psychotic bastard, let me tell you now…”

Before I can finish my ranting, he covers my lips with his, kissing me hard. I struggle, pinch him, kick him and push him. But he just won't budge, deepening the kiss each time. He grabs my ass, pulling me tighter against him, while his hand roves on my backside. 

My hands hurt from beating him, but there’s no reaction from him. He doesn't seem to feel the pain at all. He suddenly pulls away and cups my face. 

“If that bastard was a good man, I would have stayed away. But he doesn't deserve you. Look here.” He whispers and presses the remote control. 

At once a video begins to play, and dirty moans fill the room. My face heats up in embarrassment at the scene before me. The man in the video turns around and I see his face. It was William, my boyfriend.

I feel a sharp pain in my heart and I clench my fist tightly. 

“Do you understand now, why I will never let him have you? He's a dog without self control. This is the fourth girl he's fucking this week, without a condom at that. At this rate, he will infect you with diseases if you eventually marry him.”

I scoff at him.

“At least, he's not a murderer. Besides, I'm sure he will change after we get married. If you think you can make me hate the love of my life with this fake video, then you must be even crazier than I thought.” I say coldly and turn to leave, doing my best to hide the pain in my heart inflicted by the video. 

“You would not cry till you see the coffin, is that so? Very well then, I will let you see it.” He says in a cold voice, one I don't recognize, and grabs my hand. 

“You psycho! Let me go!” I scream and bite his hand. But he ignores me and throws me over his shoulder, making my heart race in terror.